Netezza-IISI settlement

Just under a month ago I mentioned the lawsuit between Netezza and IISI in the context of an entry on why we mistrust government. Netezza allegedly illegally ported IISI's software to its own hardware, a model of drone aircraft used for CIA assassination missions overseas. Netezza appears to have been motivated by heavy pressure from the CIA, which wanted the drones in action far sooner than IISI could do the job.

I was unaware that a full week before my entry, Netezza and IISI had settled.

Netezza will have ownership of all products and related intellectual property developed by IISI for the Netezza platforms, including the geospatial product and extended SQL toolkit. IISI has retained the right to continue to develop, manufacture and distribute those products for use on other platforms. Other terms of the settlement were not disclosed and will remain confidential.

Reading between the lines, it sounds like IISI allowed Netezza to keep its (otherwise illegal) port of IISI's software but is otherwise washing its hands of Netezza. This would be an understandable decision since Netezza apparently botched the work, introducing a navigation bug that could throw the drone's targeting system off.